Although Thanksgiving is over, we read a few more Thanksgiving books & talked about what we ate. We made a graph of our favorite Thanksgiving foods. There was a tie between turkey & cookies! We also spoke about what we are thankful for in school.

​We began working on our top-secret holiday project which will keep us busy for the next few weeks. Our pre-k kids were introduced to the letters/sounds of Qu & Rr. We are certainly zooming through the alphabet. We also review letter/sounds with all of the children during circle when we “guess” who will be our helper of the day. The children have been playing “family” & Santa during pretend play. In our pretend center, we introduced loose parts such as bottle caps, small wood logs, shoe laces, pouch caps & wooden spools to see what the children would do with them. They have been “cooking” foods such as cookies, spaghetti & meatballs & more. It is fascinating to watch the endless possibilities that arise from their imagination as they play.

At this time of year, excitement is in the air & the children become a bit restless, especially if they aren’t playing outdoors as much due to the weather. Sometimes the kids need a reminder so green & red choices were reviewed with our morning and afternoon classes.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey (Lucille Colandro)This is the Turkey (Abby Levine)Thanks for Thanksgiving (Julie Markes)I’m Thankful Each Day (P.K. Hallinan)I Can Make Green Choices (Jackie Kopps)

Looking Ahead:

Once again we are participating in the Scholastic Pajama Drive. With your past help, we have donated more than 75 pairs of new pajamas during the last three years to a local shelter for women & children who are victims of domestic abuse as well as Little Flower Children Services. For every new pair of pajamas we donate, Scholastic matches the pajamas with a book for the children. Please consider donating to this worthy cause. New pajamas of any size will be accepted through December 14. Thank you.

Scholastic book orders will be sent home shortly & are due December 7.

Ms. Sheri will be out the week 12/10-12/14. I’m going to visit my 96-year-old grandma in Florida. I haven’t seen her since January 2018. My aunt is traveling & doesn’t want to leave her alone so it was a good opportunity for me to visit her. Ms. Jenn (Stella’s mom), Ms. Kathy (Oliver’s mom) & Miss Miranda will sub. Miss Fabi & Ms. Joyce will be working additional hours as well. The children will be in good, capable hands!

Reminder:

If you are looking for some family style fun this weekend, Holbrook has lots going on! See the images below!

Helpers

Today marks a milestone! We are officially half-way through our 100 days of school. Today we counted & jumped our way to the 50th day of school!

​This week we continued speaking about our families, Thanksgiving & what we are thankful for. Our top secret Thanksgiving art project was sent home. We hope you enjoy them! Some of our Autumn Process Art is complete & hanging in the classroom. Anyone who didn’t have a chance to finish will complete their art project after Thanksgiving break. Some of us also made fall leaves by stringing beads on pipe cleaners. They are hanging on the small white tree on the table in our front room. Our pre-k kids will continue with the Fundations curriculum when we return after Thanksgiving break.

Thank you to everyone for donating food during our food drive in partnership with Our Place newspaper. We all appreciate your support to help feed our fellow Long Islanders who might be in need. Our very heavy box of food was donated to the food pantry at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Holbrook.

Once again we are participating in the Scholastic Pajama Drive. With your past help, we have donated more than 75 pairs of pajamas during the last three years to a local shelter for women & children who are victims of domestic abuse as well as Little Flower Children Services. For every pair of pajamas we donate, Scholastic matches the pajamas with a book for the children. Please consider donating to this worthy cause. Pajamas of any size will be accepted through December 14. Thank you.

​​Reminder:

We are closed on Thursday, 11/21 & Friday, 11/22 for Thanksgiving break.

​​Wishing you all a grateful & delicious Thanksgiving holiday weekend!

Ms. Sheri, Ms. Joyce, Miss Fabi

Helpers

This week we continued speaking about different kinds of families, what we do with our families & who is in our family. We put some finishing touches on our top secret Thanksgiving art project so they are ready to go home next week. We hope you like them! Then we began creating some Autumn Process Art. We painted with red & yellow at the easel. Ask me what color we made when the paint mixed together. We practiced scissor skills by cutting strips of fall scrapbook paper to glue to our paintings. Our pre-k kids were introduced to the letters/sounds Oo & Pp.

We had some excitement Friday morning when the power went out for about 2 hours. It didn’t bother us, we have large windows in our main play area so we had plenty of light. We had an impromptu indoor picnic on our carpet in the play area since it was too dark to eat snack in our snack room. The power came back just in time for our Friday Dance Party!

Ms. Sheri had the opportunity to attend an event at Patchogue-Medford School District on this past snowy Thursday night to hear Sir Ken Robinson speak about education. Sir Ken Robinson is a former teacher & professor, as well as an author & internationally knownexpert on education, creativity & innovation. He is well aware that our present education system is not benefiting our children. You can find more information about him on his website. He is also known for his TED Talks about education. I highly recommend taking a look at his website & perhaps listening to his TED talks or following his FB/Twitter/Instagram pages. As your children enter the public school system, you need to remain informed as to what is & isn’t developmentally appropriate for their ages. It is unfortunate that our present education system has implemented standards that are inappropriate for young children. Child development has not changed since the beginning of time. Yet we are expecting children to attain standards that are unacceptable for their typical development. It is important to advocate for appropriate educational standards as they effect your children.

Thank you to everyone for donating food during our food drive in partnership with Our Place newspaper. We all appreciate your support to help feed our fellow Long Islanders who might be in need.

Once again we are participating in the Scholastic Pajama Drive. With your past help, we have donated more than 75 pairs of pajamas during the last three years to a local shelter for women & children who are victims of domestic abuse as well as Little Flower Children Services. For every pair of pajamas we donate, Scholastic matches the pajamas with a book for the children. Please consider donating to this worthy cause. Pajamas of any size will be accepted through December 14. Thank you.

Reminder:

We are closed on Thursday, 11/21 & Friday, 11/22 for Thanksgiving break.

​Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Ms. Sheri, Ms. Joyce, Miss Fabi

Helpers

This week we began speaking about our families & will continue with our home & family unit throughout the next month. We also worked on our top secret art project for Thanksgiving. We can’t tell you what it is but you will find out soon enough. Our pre-k kids were introduced to the letters/sounds Mm & Nn.

Picture day was a big success. The children were all cooperative & had beautiful smiles! We can’t wait to see all of the pictures! Please note, our photographer will email proofs for you to review & select your favorite poses. You can then place your order with her directly. Price lists were sent home with the photographer’s email, phone number & website. If you have any questions, you can contact her directly. She did indicate that this is a busy time of year for her so it will take a few weeks to review all of the photos & email them. She took quite a few pictures & poses for each child in addition to our class pictures.

The Night Before School Picture Day (Natasha Wing)Families (Shelly Rotner)

Looking Ahead:

Once again we are participating in the Scholastic Pajama Drive. With your help, we have donated more than 75 pairs of pajamas during the last three years to a local shelter for women & children who are victims of domestic abuse as well as Little Flower Children Services. For every pair of pajamas we donate, Scholastic matches the pajamas with a book for the children. Please consider donating to this worthy cause. Pajamas of any size will be accepted through December 14. Thank you.

Reminder:

We are closed Monday, November 12 for Veteran’s Day.

We are closed on Thursday, 11/21 & Friday, 11/22 for Thanksgiving break.

Helpers this week:

Thank you to all of our families who participated in our Halloween party &/or sent in goodies for the children. Tons of fun was had by all & the costumes were fabulous!​

During circle, we discussed our costumes andcategorized them by people, animals or things. We used vocabulary such as more & less as well as most & least when counting the number of costumes in each category.

We are closed on Tuesday, 11/6 for Election Day & Monday, 11/9 for Veterans Day.

Please join us in giving back to the community this Thanksgiving! Let’s see how many families we can feed together! Creative Kids Center has teamed up with Our Place Newspapers to sponsor a food drive. Food pantries are usually at a low this time of year & really need our help. The food drive will run from October 5-November 16. Please place non-perishable food items in the box located at our door at your convenience. Food donations will be delivered to local food pantries. Thank you for your support in making a difference in the lives of our neighbors.

The November Scholastic Book Order will be placed this weekend.

Picture Day is Wednesday, November 7 beginning at 10 a.m. for the morning session. If your child does not attend school on Wednesday but you would like to come in for pictures, please arrive no later than 10 a.m. in order to be included in the class picture. We will take the class picture first, then proceed to individual pictures.

For the afternoon session, class picture will be taken at 12:15 so please arrive on time if you are bringing in your child for pictures.

Picture envelopes were NOT sent home this year. We are using a different photographer who will take 2-3 different poses & send digital proofs from which you can place your order.